3rd Ear Experience - Incredible Good Fortune (2014)
With a diverse set of musical
backgrounds, the six members of 3rd Ear Experience have
really blended their abilities in an impressive fashion on their
third and latest album, Incredible Good Fortune.
Progressive without getting too stiff, psychedelic without wandering
too far from the core melodies, and spacy without losing its footing,
the new album is a big chunk of finely-honed song-writing and
unexpected, sparkling touches of embellishment. At over an hour of
expansive musical soaring, there's plenty of opportunities for them
to show off their more-than-capable instrumental flights of fancy,
with the guitars blasting off and leaving ringing waves of feedback
in its wake as the drums, bass and keyboards meld together in some
tasty fusion. The guest appearance of five other musicians helps the
band ensure a diversity of thought going into the songs, though it
all flows together so smoothly that it can be a little difficult to
pick out when someone comes in or departs.
Despite
its run-time, the band has the stones to break it down into only five
songs, letting each one have free rein to stretch out as long as
needed to complete the cosmic wanderings. The song titles land
somewhere between whimsical and mysterious, matching up nicely with
the cover art by vocalist/synthesist Amritakripa, with a track-list
of “Tools”, “One”, “Parsley”, “White Bee”, and
“Shaman's Dream”. Each of the songs has its own distinct mood,
with a few similarities in the essential instrumentation and attitude
of the band to link them together; “Tools”, for example, as the
opening song, pulls a more traditional rock approach to some of its
aspects than the swimming-through-space sound of “One”, though
they share swooping synthesizer, clean harmonizations, and a great
deal of ambition.
If
you've got fondness for either prog or psychedelic (or just space
rock in general), do yourself a favor and check out this album as
soon as you can, as it takes some of the best aspects of each, and
just works to push them as far upwards as the band can go. Thanks to
a deal with Space Rock Productions, this album will be available on
vinyl, though I suspect it will be one you'll want to scramble for if
you expect to actually get your hands on a copy. In any event, if
you want to enjoy some spectacularly lush and inventive psychedelic
soundscapes, make it a point to familiarize yourself with this album.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Domadora, The Human Instinct, early Porcupine Tree, Battles,
Amish Rake Fight
~
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